A Life

Playwrights Horizons presents Adam Bock's new play about a man—played by Emmy and Tony winner David Hyde Pierce—who turns to astrology after heartbreak. More…

Nate Martin is hopelessly single. When his most recent breakup—another in a lifelong string of ill-fated matches—casts him into a funk, he turns to the only source of wisdom he trusts: the stars. Poring over astrological charts, he obsessively questions his past and his place in the cosmos. In this disarming new play, the answer Nate receives, when it comes, is shockingly obvious—and totally unpredictable.

"It’s as if we are turning the pages of a storybook, much like the glorious set design, flipping from the minutiae of one moment to another. It’s wildly engaging and deeply touching. Everyone in the cast gives us the purity of a life being lived. Pierce is simply outstanding pulling us in, as is Heberlee...I give a great deal of credit to the playwright Bock for crafting such a marvelous and unique story, and presenting it to us with such a surprising and creative vantage point."
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"The play is exquisite in detail but cosmic in theme; it has a Thornton Wilder soul...Directed by Anne Kauffman with a superb ear for naturalism. Sympathetic and unsentimental, the play offers a wise, quietly devastating perspective on the stuff we carry and leave behind. You may find yourself trembling as you stumble out of Playwrights Horizons and into the night, where life goes on and has been going on without you."
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"The writing in 'A Life' is the beautiful turned up. It’s funny, poignant and honest. The acting and directing – breathless. Director Anne Kauffman understands the weight of quiet, of silence. David Hyde Pierce, who is one of our theatrical treasures, and the rest of this outstanding cast are courageous in their ability to simply be – be there in front of us with all their humanity."
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"Bock leans heavily on the element of surprise, which director Kauffman successfully exploits to the fullest. She lulls us into a false sense of complacency before completely blindsiding us...Pierce gives one of the most physically committed performances I've ever witnessed onstage...Bock's commitment to soul-shaking naturalism is reminiscent of Émile Zola at his darkest, conveying a vision of life that is so frightening precisely because we know it to be completely truthful."
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"It’s hard to imagine anyone who could put this material over better than Pierce; he works every self-cancelling half-sentence and errant thought pattern into a stage naturalism so airtight it approaches the surreal...Bock’s dialogue captures the uncanny and sometimes hilarious weirdness of real speech..Balancing such disparate and volatile elements asks a lot of a director, and Anne Kauffman, in staging 'A Life,' demonstrates nerves of steel."
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"Bock presents an expertly conceived take on the milieu of contemporary life and upends it with breathtaking and emotionally charged revelations. Bock’s dialogue is authentically straightforward and his characters all have a rich sense of reality...Kauffman’s staging perfectly renders the ordinary aspects that are depicted with measured pacing, real-life movements and sparkling performances. Kauffman’s realization of the play’s turning point is a coup de théâtre...A powerful experience."
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"It’s a remarkable achievement in the theater, and one so peculiar that you probably won’t be able to recall any other quite like it...Pierce is such an engaging performer that we never ask why he’s talking to us...Anne Kauffman’s direction and her fine use of Laura Jellinek’s set, which achieves more spectacular metamorphoses than a busy caterpillar, succeeds."
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"Brutally simple and staggering...Director Anne Kauffman’s production, with the help of ingenious scenic design by Laura Jellinek, cracks open like an egg, revealing a story we thought might fit easily in our palms to be something altogether more profound and messy and devastating. Pierce is a consummate performer; the grace and charm he brings to the production form the force of its emotional punch. The rest of the ensemble is top-notch as well."
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"In the half-hour opener, Hyde Pierce is able to connect deftly to his audience with the details of Nate’s past. Obviously famous from his work on television, Hyde Pierce is a consummately skilled stage actor as well. He has a wry comic delivery, sometimes self-deprecating, sometimes bewildered...Every moment feels lived in and true...It’s a graceful and powerful ending to a simple story, brilliantly staged and presented."
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"'A Life,' so very aptly named, looks at the immense and complex as well as the small and banal. This life could be yours or mine – and it’s both exquisitely precious and cosmically inconsequential. Bock has constructed a miracle of a mirror that touches the everyman in all of us...Anne Kauffman’s direction is crisp and smart. Kauffman keeps the action moving at a pace that’s active without being frenetic."
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"You'll be riveted to your seat, anxious to find out what happens next...In the central role of Nate, the always delightful Pierce once again proves his deft stage chops as he tears down the fourth wall by addressing the audience directly, as though we're a bystander to the action of his life...Tickets are already scarce for this short but impactful play. Catch it now, before it closes."
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"A deeply affecting mediation on the fleeting nature of life, love, and human happiness...Kauffman's direction has much to do with confidently steering the play's stunning shifts in tone...Even after 'A Life' turns in a definitively macabre direction it retains the oddball humor of the early scenes. At the same time, the play grows deeper and more moving, right up to the final abrupt white-out that shows how, even at the very last second, Bock still has shocks to impart."
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"David Hyde Pierce is giving a quietly devastating performance in 'A Life,' Adam Bock’s meditative one-act play about the meaning and implicit value of a human life...Bock is scrupulous in the language he uses to reveal Nate’s indecisive character...Director Kauffman stages those events that intrude on his placid existence with a sense of high drama and implacable finality. For his part, Pierce keeps his distance and lets her do what has to be done. It’s a rewarding collaboration all around."
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"To reveal anything more would be to spoil the heartrending surprises of this deeply unsettling drama, which will linger long in your mind...Some will find it profoundly moving, others gimmicky...Director Anne Kaufman doesn't shy away from the play's daunting aspects...'A Life' is a little rough-hewn, both in the writing, which sometimes feels underdeveloped, and its technical aspects...But these are mere quibbles about a drama whose simple truths will leave you ineffably shattered."
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"Adam Bock’s bold new play at Playwrights Horizons defied my expectations. Even the scenic design turned out to be surprising...It is bracing in its conception, but likely to be disturbing for single people living alone in New York...Director Anne Kauffman has wisely chosen to let the play breathe without rushing through difficult moments. Even though I found it unnerving, I was glad to experience it."
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"With a head that always reminds me of a bright light bulb, Hyde Pierce projects an enormously likable skepticism and a willingness to let audiences in to watch his characters try to untangle the contradictions...This preoccupation with one’s own dramas is extended through the haunting 85-minute play on Laura Jellinek’s surprising sets. Director Anne Kauffman, who explored comparably unsettling subjects last season, takes us simply and effortlessly into the unthinkable."
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"There’s nothing strained about Bock’s new play...David Hyde Pierce, giving one of those performances that take you over, moment by sensitively explicated moment...The director, Anne Kauffman, doesn’t try to make the script more than it is; she helps to reveal the subtleties and the weirdness at its heart. Hyde Pierce and the rest of the cast are ideal collaborators for what Bock and Kauffman want to convey."
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"A quietly powerful drama...Pierce is excellent, taking Bock’s words and bringing the character completely to life. He shows Nate to be a not-all-that-interesting man, but one filled with feelings, and hopes that are instantly recognizable and identifiable to everyone. Credit also goes to director Anne Kauffman, who guides the piece with a sure hand, never allowing things to become overtly maudlin or comical. In this way, she makes sure the audience never forgets the humanity in the situation."
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"Under Anne Kauffman's taut direction, we get a real look into the mind of Nate...This is not a typical theater experience. The set makes unexpected changes to tell this extraordinarily sad, humorous and deeply personal story of the importance of one person's seemingly ordinary life...It's an engaging and touching 80 minutes...Pierce finds the humanity in his character and pulls us in so we feel we have experienced some significant moments in the life of a friend."
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"At first, it seems like 'A Life' is going to be that snapshot of Nate’s life, from chart—birth—to now. The play is really after something both deeper and broader...It sneaks up on you with those questions, cleverly leading you down a sunlit garden path until it suddenly drops you in deep woods, so it never feels ponderous or self-consciously philosophical...It takes you someplace dark, sometimes even bleak, but always filled with compassion for and wonder at the arc of a human existence."
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"I would have loved for 'A Life' to have been a play more worthy of attention leading up to the abrupt change in perspective...But all (or most) is forgiven by the end...Anne Kauffman's precise and pointed direction of 'A Life' is aided immeasurably by her design team...The supporting cast is spot-on. But it’s the charming, credible, comical and ultimately chilling performance of David Hyde Pierce that makes 'A Life' memorable."
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"David Hyde Pierce gives an amusing and endearing performance as gay, middle-aged Nate, who’s still trying to get his bearings after a breakup in Adam Brock’s engaging and sometimes unnerving new drama. The modest work goes places that you probably won’t see coming. The same goes for the seemingly everyday set in Anne Kauffman’s staging."
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"Features an unsettling performance by theater mainstay David Hyde Pierce, as an everyman gay New Yorker in his mid-50s...Single (again) and with a caring social circle, Pierce’s Nate Martin, an ad agency proofreader, might well have been a stand-in for half the audience members at the recent performance I attended. He’s a guy like us. That’s relevant, given the startling direction 'A Life' veers off in, halfway through."
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"In 'A Life,' Pierce proves worthy of his Tony, fully inhabiting a real person. It's a touching and sensitive portrayal, one that instantly hooked me, and made me care deeply about Nate...Layers and insights are revealed in time (thanks to director Anne Kauffman and scenic designer Laura Jellinek), and I savored Bock's Annie Baker–like silences and extended moments of stillness, of seemingly nothing happening on stage."
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"More than a mere stunt, this surprising 85-minute piece also makes us think seriously about the importance of love, friends, luck, and time...Some viewers will find the work more infuriating than enlightening, or perhaps even more tedious than involving. Still, few can argue that thanks to Pierce’s singular gifts as an actor, Nate comes off as someone familiar to many of us...and someone about whom we manage to care about. That’s even more impressive than shocking an audience, isn’t it?"
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See it if
You can allow a seemingly banal but brilliantly delivered monologue jolt you into consideration of our common existential plight. DHP rocks

Don't see it if
You resist being set up and led into territory that many would prefer to avoid, you won't appreciate the meditative pace, the great staging.

Also
This is not an easy play to enjoy in the moment despite the great acting and bold staging. I have found myself getting more out of it as it sinks in a day after seeing it. It's structure is unique, and the writing might leave you feeling blindsided. As I recall it, I realize how brilliantly the three segments in this brief 85 minute play are organically linked and although it is slow, there is nothing unnecessary or any extra padding. The play is taking on greater profundity with the passage of time. Definitely a unique and provocative experience. Like "A Life" our time here is brief. It's best that we roll with it, because it truly "is what it is." True depth and brilliance on the part of all involved.... Read moreRead less

See it if
You have 90 minutes to spare for the most intense use of that time. This play is still resounded within me, and there is something for you.

Don't see it if
You need everything to tie up at the end in a logical bow, or if you can't commit the mental energy for this provocative piece.

Also
Admittedly, David Hyde Pierce, who is so likeable it should be illegal, handles this piece beautifully, and frankly, in the hands of someone not as skilled with delivery and poignancy, it would not be as impactful. This play does not "add up" in the usual way of Act I plus Act II equals satisfying ending. Rather, it lingers in your soul like a beautiful melody and winds itself around your heart until you face some of the truths within it that are within yourself.... Read moreRead less

See it if
you enjoy shows that like Full Metal Jacket, start as one type of show and morphs into another. Comedy becomes tragedy in shocking fashion

Don't see it if
you are expecting like hearted entertainment, which it starts as. It becomes a gut-punch. Intense and disturbing (thought provoking)

Also
The amiability of David Hyde Pierce !becomes second to the abrupt and alarming change in tenor of the show. It isn't a bad thing, but it does have you going WTF am I watching! You cant even trust the set to behave normally. A whole hearted recommend, but don't expect to be humming show tunes when you exit. This show stays with you!!!... Read moreRead less